Connected Device-Triggered Failure Analysis

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure involves systems and computer implemented methods for performing a failure analysis on a device monitored by at least one connected device, where in response to a determination of an impending failure, at least one corrective action is determined and suggested to the user of the monitored device. In one example, operations include monitoring operations of at least one monitored device using at least one connected device, determining a projected life span of the at least one monitored device based on the monitored operations, and, if the projected life span of the monitored device is less than a threshold amount, determining a corrective action to perform. A proposal can be generated for presentation based on the corrective action. The proposal may be based on the estimated cost of the determined corrective action and an analysis of an account.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 62/212,457, filed on Aug. 31, 2015, the contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to computer systems andcomputer-implemented methods for performing a failure analysis on one ormore devices monitored by at least one connected device, where inresponse to a determination of an impending failure, at least onecorrective action is determined, suggested to the user of the monitoreddevice, and/or executed.

The network of connected devices can include a network of physicalobjects, or “things,” embedded within electronics, software, sensors,and connectivity to enable and achieve greater value and service byexchanging data with the manufacturer, operator, and/or other connecteddevices or systems. Each device can be uniquely identifiable through itsembedded computing system, and can interoperate through the existingInternet or local network infrastructure. In many cases, implementationsof the network can provide services including machine-to-machinecommunications (M2M), such that information received from one machinecan influence or modify the actions and activities of other machines.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure involves systems and computer implemented methodsfor performing a failure analysis on a device monitored by at least oneconnected device, where in response to a determination of an impendingfailure, at least one corrective action is determined and suggested tothe user of the monitored device. In one example method, operationsinclude monitoring operations of at least one monitored device using atleast one connected device, the at least one monitored device associatedwith a user, determining a projected life span of the at least onemonitored device based on the monitored operations, and, in response todetermining that the projected life span of the at least one monitoreddevice is less than a threshold amount, determining a corrective actionto be performed. A proposal is then generated for presentation based onthe determined corrective action.

In some instances, generating the proposal includes estimating a cost ofthe determined corrective action, analyzing an account, and creating theproposal to perform the determined corrective action based on aremaining life span of the at least one monitored device, the estimatedcost of the determined corrective action, and the analysis of theaccount. In some instances, the account may be associated with the userof the monitored device.

In some instances, the at least one connected device is the monitoreddevice, wherein the monitored device monitors its own operations. Themonitoring operations of the at least one monitored device includes oneor more of the following: monitoring a time of active operationsperformed by the at least one monitored device, monitoring a number ofoperations performed by the at least one monitored device, andmonitoring at least one performance metric associated with the monitoredoperations of the at least one monitored device.

In some instances, determining the projected life span of the at leastone monitored device includes performing a failure analysis of the atleast one monitored device. The failure analysis of the at least onemonitored device is based on, at least in part, at least one of thefollowing: a usage amount of the at least one monitored device and ausage amount of the at least one monitored device as compared to usagemetrics associated with a plurality of similar devices. Alternatively,the failure analysis of the at least one monitored device is based on,at least in part, a set of monitored performance metrics associated withthe at least one monitored device. For example, the failure analysis ofthe at least one monitored device can be based on a comparison of theset of monitored performance metrics to a known set of performancemetrics associated with a failure state. The known set of performancemetrics associated with the failure state can be based on informationcollected from a plurality of similar devices. In other instances, thefailure analysis of the at least one monitored device is based on acomparison of the set of monitored performance metrics to a set ofexpected performance metrics.

In some instances, the determined corrective action is based on at leastone of the following: an analysis of the user's financial data, ananalysis of the user's prior usage analytics of the at least onemonitored device, an analysis of corrective actions taken by at leastone other user associated with similar devices, information provided bya vendor of the at least one monitored device, an analysis ofenvironmental data associated with the location of the at least onemonitored device, and a determination as to an issue associated with theat least one monitored device. In some instances, the determinedcorrection action includes an action and a delay of implementing theaction. The delay of implementing the action is based on a projectedremaining life span of the at least one monitored device, a currentfinancial situation associated with the user, and pricing trendsassociated with a replacement device. The determined corrective actionmay be one of repairing or replacing the at least one monitored device.

In some instances, analyzing the account includes analyzing at least oneof a financial or transactional account associated with the user.Analyzing the at least one of the financial or transactional accountassociated with the user can include determining whether funds aresufficient to cover a predicted cost of the determined corrective actionare available in accounts associated with the user. Further, in responseto determining that funds sufficient to cover the predicted cost of thedetermined corrective action are not available in accounts associatedwith the user, the method may include performing an automated creditworthiness determination based on a credit history of the user. Theproposal may be generated in response to the credit worthinessdetermination determining that the user is worthy of credit, where theproposal comprises an offer of at least one loan product to pay for thepredicted costs associated with the determined corrective action. The atleast one loan product can includes a pre-approval for a repair orreplacement of the at least one monitored device, and can also includean offer for a home equity line of credit, an unsecured line of credit,a personal loan, debt consolidation, a microfinance transaction, aperson-to-person lending offer, and a crowdfunding loan offer. In oneinstance, in response to determining that funds sufficient to cover theestimated cost of the determined corrective action are not available inaccounts associated with the user, the proposal may be a proposal toincrease savings to pay for the estimated costs associated with thedetermined corrective action.

Similar or analogous computer-readable mediums storing non-transitorycomputer-readable instructions executable by a computer and configuredto perform similar operations to the method may be used. Additionally,systems comprising at least one memory and at least one processorinteroperably coupled with the at least one memory configured to performthe operations may be implemented.

In one example system, the system may comprise a memory and at least onehardware processor interoperably coupled with the memory, where theprocessor is configured to perform operations. The operations caninclude monitoring operations of at least one monitored device using atleast one connected device, the at least one monitored device associatedwith a user and determining a projected life span of the at least onemonitored device based on the monitored operations. In response todetermining that the projected life span of the at least one monitoreddevice is less than a threshold amount, a corrective action to beperformed is determined and a proposal is generated for presentation viaa graphical interface based on the determined corrective action.Generating the offer proposal includes generating estimating a cost ofthe determined corrective action and analyzing an account. The proposalassociated with the determined corrective action is created based on theprojected life span of the at least one monitored device, the estimatedcost of the determined corrective action, and the analysis of theaccount. In some instances, the account may be associated with the userof the monitored device.

In some instances, the at least one connected device is the monitoreddevice, wherein the monitored device monitors its own operations. Insome instances, monitoring operations of the at least one monitoreddevice can include one or more of monitoring a time of active operationsperformed by the at least one monitored device, monitoring a number ofoperations performed by the at least one monitored device, or monitoringat least one performance metric associated with the monitored operationsof the at least one monitored device.

In some instances, determining the projected life span of the at leastone monitored device includes performing a failure analysis of the atleast one monitored device. The failure analysis of the at least onemonitored device may be based on at least one of a usage amount of theat least one monitored device or a usage amount of the at least onemonitored device as compared to usage metrics associated with aplurality of similar devices. Alternatively or additionally, the failureanalysis can be based on, at least in part, a set of monitoredperformance metrics associated with the at least one monitored device,wherein the failure analysis of the at least one monitored device isbased on at least one of a comparison of the set of monitoredperformance metrics to a known set of performance metrics associatedwith a failure state or on information collected from a plurality ofsimilar devices. The failure analysis of the at least one monitoreddevice may also be based on a comparison of the set of monitoredperformance metrics to a set of expected performance metrics.

In some instances, the determined corrective action is based on at leastone of the following: an analysis of the user's financial data, ananalysis of the user's prior usage analytics of the at least onemonitored device, an analysis of corrective actions taken by at leastone other user associated with similar devices, information provided bya vendor of the at least one monitored device, an analysis ofenvironmental data associated with the location of the at least onemonitored device, or a determination as to an issue associated with theat least one monitored device.

In some instances, the determined correction action can include anaction and a delay of implementing the action, wherein the delay ofimplementing the action is based on a projected remaining life span ofthe at least one monitored device, a current financial situationassociated with the user, and/or pricing trends associated with areplacement device. In some instances, the determined corrective actioncan be one of repairing or replacing the at least one monitored device.

In some instances, analyzing the account associated with the userincludes analyzing at least one of a financial or transactional accountassociated with the user, which can include determining whether fundsare sufficient to cover the estimated cost of the determined correctiveaction are available in accounts associated with the user. In someinstances, the hardware processor may be further configured to performan automated credit worthiness determination based on a credit historyof the user in response to determining that funds sufficient to coverthe estimated cost of the determined corrective action are not availablein accounts associated with the user. In those instances, the proposalcan be generated in response to the credit worthiness determinationdetermining that the user is worthy of credit, wherein the proposalincludes an offer of at least one loan product to pay for the estimatedcosts associated with the determined corrective action. In someinstances, the at least one loan product can include a pre-approval fora repair or replacement of the at least one monitored device, whereinthe at least one loan product includes at least one of an offer for ahome equity line of credit, an unsecured line of credit, a personalloan, debt consolidation, a microfinance transaction, a person-to-personlending offer, and a crowdfunding loan offer. In some instances, inresponse to determining that funds sufficient to cover the estimatedcost of the determined corrective action are not available in accountsassociated with the user, the proposal can include a proposal toincrease savings to pay for the estimated costs associated with thedetermined corrective action.

In some instances, the generated offer can be presented to the user viathe user interface. In some instances, the device determines acorrective action and performs the immediate action if it is determinedthat the costs associated with the immediate action may reduce thefuture costs associated with the device over waiting for the user toprovide their feedback on the proposed action. The hardware processormay determine that the immediate shut down of the device may prevent airreparable damage increasing the costs associated if the immediateaction is not taken.

While generally described as computer-implemented software embodied onnon-tangible media that processes and transforms the respective data,some or all of the aspects may be computer-implemented methods orfurther included in respective systems or other devices for performingthis described functionality. The details of these and other aspects andembodiments of the present disclosure are set forth in the accompanyingdrawings and the description below. Other features, objects, andadvantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the description anddrawings, and from the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A and 1B are block diagrams illustrating an example system forperforming a failure analysis on one or more devices monitored by atleast one connected device, where in response to a determination of animpending failure, at least one corrective action is determined andsuggested to the user of the monitored device.

FIG. 2 is a swim lane diagram of example operations for performing afailure analysis and subsequent corrective action recommendations andoffers.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of example operations for performing a failureanalysis and subsequent corrective action recommendations and offersfrom the perspective of a failure analysis system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure describes systems and methods for performing afailure analysis on one or more devices monitored by at least oneconnected device, where in response to a determination of an impendingfailure, at least one corrective action is determined and suggested tothe user of the monitored device. Using connected devices capable ofrelaying sensor data back to a centralized or hub location, informationrelated to the operations of one or more monitored devices can becaptured and analyzed. The analysis of that information can be used todetermine a progression of a life cycle of the monitored device suchthat events and signs indicating an upcoming failure or end-of-lifeevent can be used to initiate a determination of one or more correctiveactions to be taken. For example, based on data from connected devices,a determination that a particular device (e.g., a water heater) is nearits end-of-life may be made.

For example, in a water heater example, one or more connected devices,including the water heater itself, may determine that the watertemperature of the water heater is inaccurate or slow to reach theappropriate level on a reoccurring basis. Based on this information, aswell as on known information about the specific model of the waterheater, an end-of-life projection can be made. Using that projection,corrective action may include repairing or restoring the water heater orreplacing the water heater. The particular corrective action to besuggested to the user may be based on a combination of (1) user data andhistory, (2) relative costs associated with repairing or replacing thedevice, and (3) actions taken by one or more cohorts of the user whenfacing a similar situation. Based on this set of information, the toolsdescribed herein can determine a best or suggested corrective action forthe user. In response to the suggested corrective action, the tools canfurther initiate an analysis to determine the projected cost of suchcorrective action and whether the user has the funds and/or thefinancial ability to perform the corrective action. Should the user nothave immediate funds and/or the financial ability to perform thecorrective action, the tools herein can automatically determine theuser's creditworthiness for one or more proposed financial offers toassist in paying for the projected cost. One or more offers may begenerated, including pre-approvals, for various financial programs toassist in payment of the suggested corrective action. Once generated,those offers may be presented to the user, along with a notice that themonitored device is likely nearing its end-of-life. In some instances,the proposed offer may be associated with a savings or insurance-relatedproduct or change as opposed or in addition to offers for financialloans or lending-related events.

Restated, the tools and systems described herein provide on-goingmonitoring of one or more devices with an expected end-of-life dateand/or usage amount (i.e., after X uses, failure is likely), and can beused or associated with any number of potential devices, includinghousehold appliances, vehicles, electronics, and other suitable devices.The system can provide the user with a warning message once themonitored device nears its expected end-of-life, when the device ismonitored as being associated with an end-of-life or failure-relatedevent, or when monitored performance of the device nears a failurethreshold. The tools and systems can then determine whether the user ismore likely to repair the existing device or purchase a replacementdevice. This determination can be based on the particular issue, defect,or malfunction of the device itself (e.g., based on the severity of theissue and/or the cost of repair), based on the present user's pastbehavior in repairing or replacing similar and/or other devices, basedon the behavior of cohorts of the user (i.e., persons, households, andgroups similar to those of the user), and/or the user's pre-definedfinancial and life goals. Once the corrective action (e.g., repair,replace, etc.) is determined, the system calculates the user's financialability to perform the action and determines whether a suitable loan orother financial product should be offered to assist.

The benefits of the described system are many. For users or customers ofa financial institution, notification that a device is reaching itsend-of-life or a potential failure can be beneficial to avoid theinconvenience and cost of an unexpected failure. For example, issueswith an HVAC in late spring can be identified so that the user is ableto repair or replace the system before summer arrives. Further, theoffers of financial programs to assist the user in covering the cost ofthe suggested corrective action can be made without any user request forsaid offers. The offers presented can be made at the time of theend-of-life/failure notification based on the monitored and analyzedperformance of the device. In some instances, the offers may beactionable such that the user can immediately accept the offer and moveforward with the repair or replacement without needing to secure furtherfinancing.

On the other side, the financial institution associated with the offercan increase customer loyalty and increase the reach and penetration ofits lending portfolio by identifying potential opportunities withoutrequiring users to request information on the loans before the offersare generated and sent to potential customers.

In the described solution, a centralized network hub may be used tomanage the monitoring and analysis of the devices. For example, userscan register their devices to be monitored and managed using thedescribed system, where the centralized hub can collect performance anddevice information related to the registered monitored devices andperform the failure and end-of-life analyses. In variousimplementations, performance information associated with the monitoreddevices can be obtained differently. In some instances, the monitoreddevice may share its own performance information with the centralizednetwork hub as one source of information on the monitored device. Inthose instances, the monitored device may be a connected device, whereconnected devices are able to monitor the specific performance ofparticular devices (including themselves) as well as other environmentalfactors that may relate to the performance of particular devices. In asecond implementation, one or more connected, or “smart,” devices maymonitor a non-connected, or “dumb,” device and return information aboutthe performance of the dumb device to the centralized hub. Algorithmsmay be known and used to apply information received from one or moremonitoring devices regarding the monitored devices to assist in theend-of-life or failure analysis. Where information is obtained fromconnected devices other than the monitored device, users may in someinstances need to register those monitoring connected devices with thecentralized network hub to ensure that data from the monitoring devicesis collected and applied from those devices. In some instances, the linkbetween the monitoring devices and the monitored devices can be defined,where only information relevant to the monitored devices need to beshared with the network hub.

The tools and systems described in the present disclosure use financingoffers as the primary offer or notification in relation to the resultsof end-of-life and failure analyses. However, alternatives tofinancing-specific offers may include one or both of savings and/orinsurance offers or recommendations. For example, instead of preparingan offer to assist in financing the corrective action, the presentsolution can present the user with a recommendation to begin, continue,or increase their savings for the specific recommended corrective actionto be suggested based on the device analysis. In some instances, thesystem may immediately and/or automatically implement an additionalsavings plan to cover the likely upcoming end-of-life and/or failure ofthe identified device(s). In others, the offer may be to begin savingsfor a particular corrective action, including a specified replacementdevice and/or an estimated cost of repairing the identified device.

Further, in an insurance-based offer or recommendation, insuranceincentives may be provided to users to perform the recommendedcorrective action. For example, insurance premiums and/or deductiblesmay be tied to the account of the user. Where a potential failure ornearing end-of-life is identified, the system may increase thecorresponding premium or deductible associated with the device. Forexample, if a hot water heater is identified as reaching a failurestate, the system may notify the user that the premiums or deductibleassociated with water damage have been increased. In connection with theincrease, the proposed correction may be provided, along with anindication that the raised premiums or deductible will be reversedand/or reduced to a new, lower level upon performing the correctiveaction (e.g., a repair or replacement). In some instances, the reducedpremiums and/or deductibles can be offered without initially raisingthem in response to the failure or end-of-life determination. In anotherinsurance-related example, an automatic claim process may be triggeredand/or payouts based on device failures covered under an existingpolicy. In some instances, the potential failure and/or end-of-lifedetermination can be used to avoid paying larger insurance claims byaddressing the issue and determining a corrective action before a largerissue or issue-related complications occur.

Turning to the illustrated embodiment, FIG. 1A is a block diagramillustrating an example system 100 for performing a failure analysis onone or more devices monitored by at least one connected device, where inresponse to a determination of an impending failure, at least onecorrective action is determined and suggested to the user of themonitored device. As illustrated in FIG. 1A, system 100 is aclient-server and device-client system capable of sharing deviceperformance information from a user system 140 (and its connecteddevices 147 and monitored devices 153) to a device failure managementsystem 102. The device failure management system 102 can interact withvarious data sources (i.e., a device information repository 160 andcohort information repository 165) and a financial system 170, whereinformation retrieved from those systems can be used to determine one ormore potential corrective actions as well as potential offers forfinancial products based on those determined corrective actions.Information about the performance of particular monitored devices 153can be shared with the device information repository 160, and theactions taken by the user can be shared with the cohort informationrepository 165, thereby providing feedback to modify future decisionsfor cohorts of the user to update device-related information. System 100includes or is communicably coupled with the user system 140, the devicefailure management system 102, the financial system 170, the deviceinformation repository 160, the cohort information repository 165, andnetwork 130. Although components are shown individually, in someimplementations, functionality of two or more components, systems, orservers may be provided by a single component, system, or server.Similarly, in some implementations, the functionality of one illustratedcomponent, system, or server may be provided by multiple components,systems, servers, or combinations thereof. Conversely, multiplecomponents may be combined into a single component, system, or server,where appropriate.

As used in the present disclosure, the term “computer” is intended toencompass any suitable processing device. For example, client 141 of theuser system 140, the device failure management system 102, and financialsystem 170 may be any computer or processing device such as, forexample, a blade server, general-purpose personal computer (PC), Mac®,workstation, UNIX-based workstation, or any other suitable device.Moreover, although FIG. 1A illustrates a single device failuremanagement system 102, device failure management system 102 can beimplemented using two or more systems, as well as computers other thanservers, including a server pool. Further, while the financial system170 is illustrated as separate from the device failure management system102, in some instances the device failure management system 102 may be apart, integrated with, or otherwise associated with the financial system170, and vice versa. The present disclosure contemplates computers otherthan general purpose computers, as well as computers withoutconventional operating systems. Similarly, the local connected devices147 and the monitored devices 153 illustrated within the user system 140may be their own computing devices and can receive instructions and/orcontent from the client 141, the user system 140, or any of the othercomponents while being considered their own computer. Client 141 may beany suitable type of device including a smartphone, tablet, laptopcomputer, or any other suitable device. The local connected devices 147and the monitored devices 153 may be directly associated with, embeddedwithin, and/or integral to the client 141, or they may be separatetherefrom. In general, these illustrated components may each be adaptedto execute any operating system, including Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS®, Java™, Android™, or iOS. According to one implementation, theillustrated systems may also include or be communicably coupled with acommunication server, an e-mail server, a web server, a caching server,a streaming data server, and/or other suitable server or computer.

In general, the device failure management system 102 is used to receive,manage, analyze, and interact with information associated with one ormore monitored devices 153, connected devices 147, financial system 170,and the device and cohort repositories 160, 165, in order to identifyparticular monitored devices 153 near their end-of-life state and/orfailure point, and to subsequently identify and propose one or morecorrective actions. The device failure management system 102 can connectto these systems to obtain information about a user, his registereddevices (both monitored and for monitoring), financial informationrelated to the corrective action, and information about the devicesthemselves and cohorts of the user. In some instances, the devicefailure management system 102 may be associated with and/or integral tothe financial system 170, while in others, the device failure managementsystem 102 is separate therefrom. Similarly, one or both of the deviceand cohort information repositories 160, 165 may be internal to thedevice failure management system 102 in some instances.

As illustrated, the device failure management system 102 includes aninterface 103, a processor 104, a graphical user interface (GUI) 105, afailure analysis management module 106, and memory 113. The devicefailure management system 102 may connect directly or indirectly to oneor more user systems 140 via a wireless or wired technology (e.g., vianetwork 130, Bluetooth, Near-Field Communications (NFC), etc.), or thedevice failure management system 102 may contact or interact with one ormore application programming interfaces (APIs) associated with one ormore of the components within user systems 140, the financial system170, and the repositories 160, 165. Where the device failure managementsystem 102 is associated with two or more user systems 140, the devicefailure management system 102 can maintain separate profiles for eachassociated user account 114.

The interface 103 is used by the device failure management system 102for communicating with other systems in a distributedenvironment—including within the environment 100—connected to thenetwork 130, e.g., user systems 140, particular connected devices 147,monitored devices 153, clients 141, financial system 170, therepositories 160, 165, as well as other systems communicably coupled tothe network 130. Generally, the interface 103 comprises logic encoded insoftware and/or hardware in a suitable combination and operable tocommunicate with the network 130. More specifically, the interface 103may comprise software supporting one or more communication protocolsassociated with communications such that the network 130 or interface'shardware is operable to communicate physical signals within and outsideof the illustrated environment 100. Still further, the interface 103 mayallow the device failure management system 102 to create ad hoc ordedicated connections to one or more of the clients 141, local connecteddevices 147, or monitored devices 153, among others.

Network 130 facilitates wireless or wireline communications between thecomponents of the environment 100 (e.g., between the clients 141 and thedevice failure management system 102, as well as between the devicefailure management system 102 or client 141 and the repositories 160,165), as well as with any other local or remote computer, such asadditional clients, servers, or other devices communicably coupled tonetwork 130, including those not illustrated in FIG. 1A. In theillustrated environment, the network 130 is depicted as a singlenetwork, but may be comprised of more than one network without departingfrom the scope of this disclosure, so long as at least a portion of thenetwork 130 may facilitate communications between senders andrecipients. In some instances, one or more of the illustrated components(e.g., the device failure management system 102 itself) may be includedwithin network 130 as one or more cloud-based services or operations.The network 130 may be all or a portion of an enterprise or securednetwork, while in another instance, at least a portion of the network130 may represent a connection to the Internet. In some instances, aportion of the network 130 may be a virtual private network (VPN).Further, all or a portion of the network 130 can comprise either awireline or wireless link. Example wireless links may include802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 802.20, WiMax, LTE, and/or any other appropriatewireless link. In other words, the network 130 encompasses any internalor external network, networks, sub-network, or combination thereofoperable to facilitate communications between various computingcomponents inside and outside the illustrated environment 100. Thenetwork 130 may communicate, for example, Internet Protocol (IP)packets, Frame Relay frames, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) cells,voice, video, data, and other suitable information between networkaddresses. The network 130 may also include one or more local areanetworks (LANs), radio access networks (RANs), metropolitan areanetworks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs), all or a portion of theInternet, and/or any other communication system or systems at one ormore locations.

As illustrated in FIG. 1A, the device failure management system 102includes a processor 104. Although illustrated as a single processor 104in FIG. 1A, two or more processors may be used according to particularneeds, desires, or particular implementations of the environment 100.Each processor 104 may be a central processing unit (CPU), anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmablegate array (FPGA), or another suitable component. Generally, theprocessor 104 executes instructions and manipulates data to perform theoperations of the device failure management system 102. Specifically,the processor 104 executes the algorithms and operations described inthe illustrated figures, including the operations performing thefunctionality associated with the device failure management system 102generally, as well as the various software modules (e.g., the failureanalysis management module 106 and its failure analysis module 107,corrective action analyzer 108, and various interfaces 109, 110, 111,and 112), including the functionality for sending communications to andreceiving transmissions from the various systems involved in the failureanalysis and end-of-life calculations, as well as the generation offinancial offers to perform the proposed corrective actions.

GUI 105 of the device failure management system 102 interfaces with atleast a portion of the environment 100 for any suitable purpose,including generating a visual representation of a Web browser and/or thefailure analysis management module 106. In particular, the GUI 105 maybe used to view and navigate various Web pages located both internallyand externally to environment 100, as well as to view and navigatethrough information accessed by the failure analysis management module106, such as information stored at or associated with a particular usersystem 140 and its components, financial system 170, or one of therepositories 160, 165, among others. Generally, the GUI 105 provides theoversight user with an efficient and user-friendly presentation of dataprovided by or communicated within the system. The GUI 105 may comprisea plurality of customizable frames or views having interactive fields,pull-down lists, and buttons operated by the user. For example, the GUI105 may provide interactive elements that allow a user to view orinteract with information related to the operations of the processassociated with the oversight process. The GUI 105, for example, may bewhere the user of the device failure management system 102 is able toprovide feedback (e.g., confirmations of registrations of particularmonitored devices 153) or otherwise interact with actions taken andrequests made by the client-side user. The GUI 105 may presentinformation associated with the client application 145, the monitoreddevices 153, or the connected devices 147 for viewing and interaction atthe device failure management system 102. In general, the GUI 105 isoften configurable, supports a combination of tables and graphs (bar,line, pie, status dials, etc.), and is able to build real-time portalsand presentations, where tabs are delineated by key characteristics(e.g., site or micro-site). Therefore, the GUI 105 contemplates anysuitable graphical user interface, such as a combination of a genericweb browser, intelligent engine, and command line interface (CLI) thatprocesses information in the platform and efficiently presents theresults to the user visually.

The illustrated device failure management system 102 also includesmemory 113, or multiple memories 113. The memory 113 may include anymemory or database module and may take the form of volatile ornon-volatile memory including, without limitation, magnetic media,optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM),removable media, or any other suitable local or remote memory component.The memory 113 may store various objects or data, including financialdata, user information, administrative settings, password information,caches, applications, backup data, repositories storing business and/ordynamic information, and any other appropriate information including anyparameters, variables, algorithms, instructions, rules, constraints, orreferences thereto associated with the purposes of the device failuremanagement system 102. Additionally, the memory 113 may store any otherappropriate data, such as VPN applications, firmware logs and policies,firewall policies, a security or access log, print or other reportingfiles, as well as others. For example, memory 113 can store user accountinformation 114.

The user account information 114 can include user and usersystem-related information for one or a plurality of users. In theillustrated example, the user account information 114 includes datadefining one or more monitored devices 115 and connected devices 118(i.e., those perform the monitoring of devices 115) associated with aparticular user. The data associated with each of the monitored devices115 may be based on a registration performed by the user with the devicefailure management system 102 via client 141 (e.g., via clientapplication 145), a connected device 147 (e.g., based on registrationsettings defined on the device 147), a monitored device 153 (e.g., basedon registration settings defined on the monitored device 153 or on acontroller or device capable of controlling the monitored device 153),or by any other suitable method, including through a device manufacturerwebsite, financial institution website, or another method. Byregistering the devices with a particular user account 114, the devicefailure management system 102 can access user-related information fromvarious locations as needed, such as the financial system 170. Byregistering the particular devices associated with the user system 140of a particular user, the device failure management system 102 canaccess device-specific information from the device informationrepository 160 as well as experiential information on the particulardevice from the cohort information repository 165.

As illustrated, each monitored device 115 may be associated with anysuitable information, including but not limited to a device identifier116 (e.g., a serial number, model number, and other device-specificinformation) and device information 117 which may store operationalinformation related to the corresponding monitored device 153. Thisinformation 117 may include the actual operational parameters, currentor prior settings, time of use or operation, and other informationassociated with the particular monitored device 153 as received from themonitored device 153 itself or as provided by the user at or afterregistration. Any other suitable device-specific information may beincluded in device information 117, including information related to theuser and or the location in which the monitored device 153 is installedor located. Further, the device information 117 may include informationon a percentage or threshold where a corrective action may need to betaken, such as a percentage of remaining useful life or an estimatedtime remaining to perform the corrective action.

The connected device information 118 may be associated with one or morelocal connected devices 147 at the user system 140, where the localconnected devices 147 specifically monitor one or more monitored devices153 in the user system 140 and/or a set of general environmentalcharacteristics associated with the environment or location of the usersystem 140. The connected devices 147 may be registered specificallywith the device failure management system 102 by the user associatedwith the user system 140. In some instances, particular local connecteddevices 147 may be specifically associated with and monitoring aparticular one or more monitored devices 153. In other instances,particular local connected devices 147 may be generally associated withthe location of the user system 140 and can monitor environmentalparameters associated with the user system 140. Depending on the type ofmonitored device 153, the environmental information may be used todetermine or evaluate the potential failure of and/or the end-of-lifeestimate of one or more monitored devices 115. One example may be aconnected or smart thermostat evaluating the efficiency of a home HVACsystem. While the smart thermostat—the local connected device 147 in theexample—may be unable to directly determine the performance of the HVACsystem, the environmental factors associated with the current actualtemperature in a location and the desired or set temperature may be usedto provide and/or derive additional information about the end-of-life orfailure analysis of the monitored device 153. Returning to the connecteddevice information 118 stored in memory 113, each connected device 147corresponding to particular connected device information 118 may beregistered to be associated with one or more monitored devices 119 atthe corresponding user system 140. Further, relevant monitored data 120may be stored in memory 113 for use in performing the failure andend-of-life analyses.

As noted, the device failure management system 102 includes the failureanalysis management module 106, where, in the illustrated example, thefailure analysis management module 106 collects and manages theinformation related to the failure analysis. As illustrated, the devicefailure management system 102 includes a failure analysis module 107,corrective analysis analyzer 108, and four interfaces: a user systeminterface 109, a financial system interface 110, a device informationinterface 111, and a user account interface 112.

In general, the failure analysis management module 106 represents anapplication, set of applications, software, software modules, orcombination of software and hardware used to manage the failure analysisand corrective action analysis for the illustrated system. In theillustrated solution, as described above, the device failure managementsystem 102 is shown as a single system with the failure analysismanagement module 106 executing the primary activities. In manyimplementations, the device failure analysis management system 102and/or the failure analysis management module 106 may be a set ofrelated, remote, or individual components used to perform the describedfunctionality of the single system 102 and/or module 106.

Regardless of the particular implementation, “software” includescomputer-readable instructions, firmware, wired and/or programmedhardware, or any combination thereof on a tangible medium (transitory ornon-transitory, as appropriate) operable when executed to perform atleast the processes and operations described herein. In fact, eachsoftware component may be fully or partially written or described in anyappropriate computer language including C, C++, JavaScript, Java™,Visual Basic, assembler, Perl®, any suitable version of 4GL, as well asothers.

The failure analysis module 107 reviews the collected information on themonitored devices 153, the monitored data collected from the connecteddevices 147, information on the device from the device informationrepository 160, and information about device performance and life spanfrom the cohort information repository 165, and uses that information todetermine a potential or likely life or expected failure of themonitored device 153. In some instances, the failure analysis module 107may rely on some or all of the above data, as well other data sources,to perform the analysis. While some or all of the information may beavailable locally at memory 113, the failure analysis module 107 can useany of the suitable interfaces 109, 110, 111, and 112, as well asinterface 103, to retrieve and/or obtain additional information. Forexample, the failure analysis module 107 may connect directly to one ormore of the connected devices 147 or monitored devices 153 to obtainadditional or updated information. Using the available information, thefailure analysis module 107 can determine whether a corrective actionanalysis should be initiated. That determination may be based on aremaining estimated life or an expected failure or nearing failure ofthe monitored device 153. Once identified or predicted, the failureanalysis module 107 can trigger or initiate the corrective actionanalyzer 108 to determine what actions, if any, are needed to remedy thepossible failure and/or end-of-life of the monitored device 153.

The corrective action analyzer 108 operates to identify a particularcorrective action in light of the identified or predicted end-of-life orpotential failure of the monitored device 153. The corrective actionanalyzer 108 considers the symptoms of the predicted failure orend-of-life, including the monitored data 120 captured by the one ormore connected devices 147 and is stored in connected device information118. In some instances, the corrective action analyzer 108 reviewsdevice-specific information from the device information repository 160,information on similar devices and actions taken by cohorts of the userin the cohort information repository 165, as well as financialinformation from the financial system 170 to determine a suggestedcorrective action. In one example, the suggested corrective actions mayinclude either replacing or repairing the monitored device 153. Thecorrective action analyzer 108 may also consider one or moreuser-defined goals associated with the user account 114 or a financialinstitution customer account 177. Still further, the corrective actionanalyzer 108 may consider the financial status of the user based oninformation available at the financial system 170.

The device information repository 160 is illustrated in FIG. 1B. Asnoted, the device information repository 160 can store and maintaininformation related to a plurality of various devices. The informationstored in the repository 160 can include any number of data pointsassociated with a plurality of devices. Each device 1062 may have anentry where device-specific information is maintained, such as in adatabase or other structured format. Alternatively, each device's entrymay include a plurality of links to device-specific information storedin any suitable location, including websites and/or commercialdatabases. Particular devices 1062 may be associated with their specificdevice identifiers 1064, where the device identifier 1064 may include amodel number or other uniquely identifying set of information.

Information included in or associated with each device 1062 may includea set of manufacturer data 1066, standard performance data 1068,maintenance information and schedules 1070, projected failure andtroubleshooting data 1072, and device-related experiential data 1074.The manufacturer data 1066 may include generic information about theparticular device 1062 from the manufacturer. The standard performancedata 1068 may include a projected performance and metric data associatedwith the device 1062, including information from which deviationstherefrom can be calculated (e.g., by the failure analysis module 107).In some cases, an expected life span of the device 1062 may be includedin the standard performance data 1068, where the expected life span is atheoretical expected life span based on a normal usage pattern. Themaintenance schedule 1070 may include a listing of scheduled maintenanceprocedures recommended or required for the device 1062.

The projected failure and troubleshooting data 1072 may includeinformation related to common fixes, corrections, and lifespan-sustaining operations that may be experienced during operation andusage of the device 1062. This data 1072 may be provided by themanufacturer in some cases, as well as a collected knowledge baseprovided by other users, technicians, repair workers, and other personshaving experience and/or knowledge related to the device 1062. Thefailure analysis module 107 and similar components may access andinterpret the troubleshooting information to determine how and if aparticular issue can be corrected and/or fixed to allow for repairing ofthe device 1062 if similar issues are faced. Additionally, informationabout whether a particular issue is indicative of a projected failure orwhether particular metrics are signs of an impending failure may beincluded in this data.

The device-related experience data 1074 can include information andadditional data of experiences seen, observed, or monitored by one ormore other users, including records and information associated withfailures of other devices of the same type. In some instances, theinformation may be manually entered by the other users, themanufacturer, repair technicians, or other individuals. Alternatively,at least some of the information may be automatically entered based ondetected issues or readings in smart systems, including one or moreconnected devices 147 and/or monitored devices 153 from other usersystems 140. In some instances, the device-related experiential data1074 may include a set of actual product performance data 1076,including information on the actual life span seen or obtained byothers. The actual product performance data 1076 may differ from thestandard performance data 1068, and may reflect, in some cases, a moreaccurate estimation of actual life spans to be expected. In someinstances, the actual product performance data 1076 may includeinformation on the operating environment of the particular devices 1062for which the actual data was captured, where that information can becompared to the environment in the user system 140 to modify or update afailure analysis or end-of-life estimate. The device-relatedexperiential data 1074 also include actual failure data 1078, which canprovide information on various device failures experience by other usersor entities. For example, if a particular error is constantly seen priorto a device failure, the actual failure data 1078 may include suchinformation, where the failure analysis module 107 can determine if themonitored device 153 is experiencing similar issues during themonitoring periods at the user system 140. As illustrated, thedevice-related experiential data 1074 includes actual repair data 1079,where the results of prior attempted repairs may be maintained. Thisinformation can be weighed by the corrective action analyzer 108 todetermine the likelihood of success in prior repair attempts. Further,cost information associated with repairs can be located or stored withthe actual repair data 1079, again providing an additional data point inthe corrective action analysis.

While the device information repository 160 is illustrated as separatefrom the other components, the repository 160 may be a part of orimplemented within one of the other components or in another location asappropriate in alternative implementations. Further, a subset of theinformation in the illustrated repository 160 may be available inalternative implementations, as well as alternative and/or additionalinformation or data.

Returning to FIG. 1A, the failure analysis module 107 and correctiveaction analyzer 108, as well as the failure analysis management module106 itself, may use any of the user system interface 109, financialsystem interface 110, device information interface 111, or user accountinterface 112 to access and interact with information at any of thecorresponding components or systems. In some instances, portions of theanalysis performed by the components may be sent to or executed at oneof the corresponding systems. For example, a financial analysis relatedto a particular corrective action may be performed at the financialsystem 170 with the results returned to the device failure analysismanagement system 102 and incorporated into the execution of the fullanalysis process.

The various interfaces may be specifically-designed portions of theinterface 103, portions of the failure analysis management module 106 orits components, or a remotely executed portion of the correspondingcomponents. Alternatively, the interfaces may be software executed toaccess web services or native applications capable of accessing data atthe various sources and collecting that data at the device failuremanagement system 102.

In general, the illustrated modules of the failure analysis managementmodule 106 may be combined into a single application or module in someinstances. As noted, some of the failure analysis management module 106may be located or available at one or more remote systems, including aportion of the user system 140 or the financial system 170.

In some instances, the corrective analysis analyzer 108 may takeadditional input into consideration on the actions to be taken,including the user's purchase history and/or a market analysis relatedto pricing or sales/discounts for replacement purchases or repairs.Further, the failure analysis module 107 may determine a potential orlikely failure window for monitored device 153. Based on this failurewindow, the corrective action analyzer 108 may determine a suggestedcorrective action as well as a time for the action to be taken. Forexample, if a determination is made that a failure for a monitoreddevice 153 is likely in six (6) months, the information may be providedto the corrective action analyzer 108 for consideration. If thecorrective action analyzer 108 identifies or determines that asignificant end of season sale is occurring, or if a manufacturerintroduces significant savings on a potential replacement device, thecorrective analyzer 108 may determine that a move up or acceleration ofthe replacement or action date is suggested such that the savings can berealized. Similarly, if additional time is available prior to thefailure and costs at the current time are higher than likely futuremarket costs, the corrective analyzer 108 may suggest a delayed strategyto replacing the device.

The user system 140, as illustrated, represents any user-relatedecosystem or environment where at least one monitored device 153 ismonitored for a failure and/or end-of-life analysis. In particular, theuser system 140 may be a location of a business or entity (e.g., afactory or office), as well as a location at which a local user canwork, live, or interact, such as a home office, home generally, roamingoffice, or car, among others. For example, a user system 140 maydesignate or be associated with a single location or multiple locations,where the user system 140 is associated with at least one user. In someinstances, the device failure management system 102 may be physicallylocated at or near the user system 140, such as running on a client 141or other system associated with the user. In other instances, the devicefailure management system 102 may be remotely located from the usersystem 140, including when the device failure management system 102 isimplemented as a cloud-based system or provided by a third-party,including the financial system 170.

The user system 140 includes client 141 associated with the user, one ormore monitored devices 153, and one or more local connected devices 147.The client 141 may be any computing device operable to connect to orcommunicate with the device failure management system 102, other clients141, or other components via network 130, as well as the with thenetwork 130 itself, using a wireline or wireless connection. Each client141 may be or include a desktop computer, a mobile device, a tablet, aserver, or any other suitable computer device. In general, client 141comprises an electronic computer device operable to receive, transmit,process, and store any appropriate data associated with the environment100 of FIGS. 1A and 1B. In particular, client 141 executes one or moreclient applications 145. In some instances, at least one of the clientapplications 145 may be used to correspond with the device failuremanagement system 102, including to register one or more devices 147,153 with the user account 114, and to receive information associatedwith a failure analysis performed, at least in part, by or at the devicefailure management system 102.

As illustrated, client 141 includes an interface 142, a processor 143, agraphical user interface (GUI) 144, a client application 145, and memory146. The interface 142, processor 143, and GUI 144 may be similar to ordifferent than the interface 103, processor 104, and GUI 105 describedfor the device failure management system 102. In general, processor 104executes instructions and manipulates data to perform the operations ofthe client 141. Specifically, the processor 143 executes the algorithmsand operations described in the illustrated figures and associated withthe client 141, including the operations performing the functionalityassociated with the client application 145. Memory 146 may be similar toor different than memory 113. While illustrated generally, memory 146may store or maintain information on either or both local connecteddevices 147 and monitored devices 153, for example, when local storageof data and information related to the components are used. In thoseinstances, the client application 145 or another module or software canshare this information with the device failure management system 102,where and when appropriate.

Client 141 executes client application 145 operable to perform anysuitable functionality, including but not limited to managing one ormore devices 147, 153 present at the user system 140. Client application145 may be a web application, desktop application, portal page orportal-based application or process, a dedicated mobile application, orother software.

The illustrated client 141 is intended to encompass any computing devicesuch as a desktop computer, laptop/notebook computer, mobile device,smartphone, personal data assistant (PDA), tablet computing device, oneor more processors within these devices, or any other suitableprocessing device. For example, the client 141 may comprise a computerthat includes an input device, such as a keypad, touch screen, or otherdevice that can accept user information, and an output device thatconveys information associated with the operation of the clientapplication 145 or the client 141 itself, including digital data, visualinformation, or a GUI 144, as shown with respect to the client 141.

The plurality of monitored devices 153 may include many different devicetypes, where each monitored device(s) 153 is capable of having adetermined or projected failure and/or end-of-life analysis performedupon it. Some monitored devices 153 may be smart or network-connecteddevices, where the devices can communicate and share information withother connected systems, including the device failure management system102. In those instances, the monitored devices 153 may be able toprovide performance and operational information directly to the devicefailure management system 102. In other instances, the monitored devices153 may be non-connected, or dumb devices. In those instances, separateconnected devices 147 may monitor the operations of the monitoreddevice(s) 153, providing information on the relative and absoluteperformance of the monitored device 153 to the device failure managementsystem 102. The monitored device 153 illustrated in FIG. 1A is anexample of one of any number of variations of monitored devices 153, andis meant to be an example device. Alternative, additional, or differentcomponents may be associated with and/or included within differentimplementations.

As illustrated, the monitored device 153 includes a processor 154, a setof device operations 155 to be performed by the monitored device 153,and a communications interface 158. The processor 154 may be similar toor different from processor 104 and 143 as described for the devicefailure management system 102 and client 141. In general, processor 154executes instructions and manipulates data to perform the operations ofthe monitored device 153. As illustrated, each monitored device 153 mayinclude a set of device operations 155 to be executed by the processor154. These operations may be associated with the normal performance ofthe tasks and methods as performed by the device. For example, when thedevice 153 is an HVAC, the device operations 155 include heating andcooling a house or location. In addition to the general deviceoperations 155, some of the monitored devices 153 may include one ormore self-monitoring operations 156 and/or environmental monitoringoperations 157. The self-monitoring operations 156 can allow the device153 to provide the device failure management system 102 with informationabout the operations of the device 153 itself, including internaloperation information, self-calculated performance metrics, and otherrelevant information. The environmental monitoring operations 157 canallow the device 153 to monitor one or more factors or parametersexternal to the device 153. For example, a monitored device 153 may be athermostat. The internal information may include thermostat settingswhile the external information may be a resulting temperature detectedby the device 153.

The monitored device 153 may include a communications interface 158,where the communications interface 158 allows the monitored device 153to interact and/or communicate with the device failure management system102, the client 141, and any other suitable component. In someinstances, the monitored device 153 may be managed or controlled by anexternal component via the communication interface 158.

A particular monitored device 153 may be affected by changes, actions,or failures of other devices associated with the particular monitoreddevice 153. For example, one or more “upstream” devices from themonitored device 153 may be the source of issues or anomalous readingsor performance associated with the monitored device 153. In thoseinstances, the system (e.g., the failure analysis module 107) mayidentify issues associated with the upstream device based on readingsfrom or information derived by or about the monitored device 153. Thefailure or operations of one monitored device 153 may be indicative of achange or issue with another device associated with the monitored device153. In some instances, the monitored device 153 may be a non-connecteddevice, such as a “dumb” dishwasher without connected functionality. Thedishwasher itself may be the monitored device 153, even in situationswhere specific performance associated with the dishwasher may bedifficult to directly determine. The information about the dishwashermay be captured based on readings from one or more other devices withinthe user system 140, such as the efforts of a hot water heater, a smartelectricity panel, or another appropriate monitored device 153 and/orconnected device 147. Additional efforts (e.g., water heating higherthan normal, higher or lower requests for water, energy usage correlatedto the dishwasher, etc.) expended by those related devices may becorrelated and identified as due to the dishwasher even thoughinformation about the dishwasher directly are unavailable. Similarly,one or more “downstream” devices may be monitored through use of anon-connected and/or connected device. In another dishwasher example, aconnected dishwasher may be used to determine that a non-connected hotwater heater is about to fail based on, for example, a length of time ittakes for hot water to be provided or where the temperature of the wateris insufficient or below/above an expected and correct temperature.Using similar procedures and knowledge of devices to be monitored, manyif not all of “dumb” devices can be monitored devices 153 by combiningavailable information from one or more connected devices 147.

The local connected devices 147 represent one or more devices in theuser system 140 that are used to monitor the operations of at least onemonitored device 153. In some instances, a particular connected devices147 may itself be a monitored device 153, while in others, the connecteddevices 147 may be separate from the one or more monitored devices 153.In some instances, a connected device 147 may be both a monitored device153 and a connected device 147, in that the connected device 147 may bemonitored for potential failures and end-of-life calculations as well asmonitor one or more other monitored devices 153. In particular, aconnected device 147 may be able to provide smart-functionality to aparticular “dumb” monitored device 153, or may provide additional“smart” functionality (e.g. one or more sensors and/or other datacapturing abilities) to an existing smart monitored device 153. Forexample, additional environmental information and/or monitored deviceperformance results may be captured externally by the connected device147 than can be captured by the monitored device 153 alone. At leastsome of the additional information that can be captured by the connecteddevice 147 can be provided to the failure analysis management module106.

As illustrated, the connected device 147 includes a processor 148, a setof monitoring operations 149, and a communications interface 152.Processor 148 may be similar to processor 154, and may perform andexecute the various operations of the particular connected device 147.Those operations may include the specific monitoring operations 149performed by the connected device 147, as well as standard operatingoperations (not illustrated). For example, where the connected device147 performs a non-monitoring function, the standard operatingoperations may be executed by the processor 148. Where monitoringfunctions are to be performed, the processor 148 can perform thoseoperations 149. The monitoring operations 149 can includedevice-specific monitoring operations 150 as well as environmentalmonitoring 151. The device-specific monitoring operations 150 can bemonitoring operations specifically associated with the operations of amonitored device 153. For example, an amount of electricity used by thedevice 153 may be monitored, as well as run time, current settings, orother suitable parameters. In contrast, the environmental monitoringoperations 151 may include monitored environmental factors that mayrelate, either directly or indirectly, to the monitored device 153. Forexample, if the monitored device 153 is an HVAC system, theenvironmental factors associated with the HVAC system may be atemperature or humidity in the associated location. The failure analysismanagement module 106, knowing the connected devices 147 and themonitored devices 153 present in a particular user system 140, can usethe device-specific monitoring data and the environmental monitoringdata and apply that data to assist in the failure analysis process. Asillustrated, the connected devices 147 may use a communication interface152 (similar to or different from the communications interface 158 ofthe monitored devices 153) to communicate with the device failuremanagement system 102.

As illustrated, environment 100 includes the financial system 170. Theillustrated financial system 170 represents a system wherecustomer-specific financial information related to the failure analysisand corrective action determination can be obtained, and where financialproducts used to finance, if necessary, the corrective action areidentified. In some instances, some or a portion of the device failuremanagement system 102 may be located at or associated with the financialsystem 170. Additionally, some or all of the information from the deviceinformation repository 160 and cohort information repository 165 may bestored at, associated with, or otherwise related to the financial system170. As illustrated in FIG. 1A, however, the financial system 170 canreceive information from and share information with any, all, or asubset of the other illustrated components via network 130. In someinstances, the financial system 170 may be associated with a particularfinancial institution, such as a bank, credit union, peer-to-peerlending or crowdfunding entity, or any other suitable lending-basedinstitution or entity.

As illustrated, the financial system 170 includes interface 171,processor 172, cohort comparison analyzer 173, financial productanalysis module 174, credit analysis module 175, and memory 176.Interface 171 and processor 172 may be similar to or different frominterfaces 103, 142 and processors 104, 143, 148, 154. Processor 172executes the various modules and corresponding instructions illustratedin the financial system 170. Interface 171 allows the financial system170 to communicate with and retrieve information from or sendinformation to some or all of the components communicably connected vianetwork 130.

The cohort comparison analyzer 173 can be used, in part, to determine apotential corrective action based, in part, on cohorts of the userassociated with the monitored device 153. In some instances, the cohortcomparison analyzer 173 may be located outside of the financial system170, including at the device failure management system 102, where it maybe a portion of the corrective action analyzer 108. The correctiveaction analyzer 108 may initiate or remotely control the cohortcomparison analyzer 173 in some instances. In general, the cohortcomparison analyzer 173 can access information associated with the user(e.g., demographics such as income information, location, etc.) todetermine, based on the particular monitored device 153, what similarlysituated individuals or groups of individuals have done at the end of aparticular device's life cycle or in response to a failure prediction.In some instances, the cohort comparison analyzer 173 can accessinformation associated with the user account 114 at the device failuremanagement system 102, at the financial system 170, or at any otheravailable location, where the accessed information can determine theparticular cohort group to be considered in the analysis. Once the groupis determined, information related to the cohort group can be obtainedfrom any suitable location describing or monitoring actions performed bythe corresponding cohort. For example, the cohort information repository165 may store information on various individuals' actions, decisions,and demographics, where those individuals can be grouped into particularcohorts to provide group-based information on similar actions whenfacing failure and/or end-of-life for a particular device 153.

As illustrated, the cohort information repository 165 is remote from anyone particular component of environment 100, although in otherillustrations and implementations, the cohort information repository 165may be located within or a part of one or more of the components,including the financial system 170 or the device failure managementsystem 102. Turning to FIG. 1B, a detailed view of an example cohortinformation repository 165 is available.

As illustrated, the cohort information repository 165 includes one ormore sets of cohort demographic information 1080. In some instances,on-the-fly calculations of particular cohorts may be made instead of apre-defined demographic analysis, where different attributes ofparticular users are more heavily weighted in determining acorresponding cohort to the current user. For example, for HVAC devices,the location of the cohort members, due to weather effects on thelifecycle of the HVAC system, may be more heavily weighted than aparticular income or family size of those same members and the currentuser. Similar dynamic cohort groupings can be executed to provide themost relevant set of cohort data to the analysis.

As illustrated, the cohort demographic information 1080 can includeinformation on the cohort's age group 1082, location 1084, financialinformation 1086, and the historical corrective actions 1088 performedby the cohort members. Additional and/or alternative information may beavailable in the cohort demographic information 1080. In some instances,the information may be listed in a table, database, or similar datastructure without specific organization, or without a required orpre-generated set of cohorts. When a request is received related to thecurrent user, an analysis can be performed by the cohort comparisonanalyzer 173 to generate an appropriate cohort, where the informationassociated with that appropriate cohort is then used to determine andweigh the actions taken by those cohort members in light of thesituation faced by the current user. The cohort set may be limited topersons or entities who owned the exact same device as the current user,while in other instances, the cohort set may include persons or entitieswho have similar, but not identical, devices. The historic correctiveactions 1088 of the cohort may be used to determine what actions weretaken previously, as well as the costs of those actions. In someinstances, information regarding why a particular action was taken mayalso be included. The financial information 1086 of the cohort memberscan be analyzed to determine whether the financial situation of aparticular cohort member or group of cohort members factored into orhelped determine the action taken. This information can be used by thecohort comparison analyzer 173 to provide input to the corrective actionanalyzer 108, where appropriate.

The financial system 170 also includes the financial product analysismodule 174 and the credit analysis module 175. The financial productanalysis module 174 can assist in performing a determination of one ormore financial products to be offered to the user once a particularcorrective action is determined, or alternatively, to determine if theuser would qualify for a particular corrective action. If the usercannot qualify for the action, then an alternative corrective action maybe proposed. The financial product analysis module 174 may be integratedinto the financial institution's loan offerings, and may also factor inthe availability of funds of the current user to pay for at least a partof the corrective action in cash, already available credit, or similarmeans. The financial products available and that may be offered mayinclude a home equity line of credit (HELOC), a home equity loan, anunsecured line of credit, a credit card offer, debt consolidation,micro-financing, P2P lending, or crowdfunding, among others. The creditanalysis module 175 may determine the creditworthiness of the user andtherefore determine the types of financial products available, as wellas the associated terms. The credit analysis module 175 can access, whengranted permission to do so, customer accounts 177 and financial history178, including credit reports related to the user. Using the determinedcreditworthiness of the user, particular loan programs can be detectedand offered to pay for and/or finance the corrective action asdetermined by the corrective action analyzer.

In some instances, the financial system 170 may identify one or morethird-party financial products that may be offered to the user after thecreditworthiness determination and costs of the corrective action aredetermined. In some instances, those third-party financial products maybe associated with sponsored offers for financing and/or products,allowing the financial institution of the financial system 170 toidentify multiple solutions for their customers.

In addition to the standard customer information 177 and financialhistory information 178, the financial system 170 may store informationidentifying or describing one or more customer life and/or financialgoals. The goals may include becoming debt-free, purchasing a home, orother suitable life/financial goals that may be stored in the system.This information may be incorporated into both the cohort comparisonanalysis, the determination of particular financial products to beoffered, and the corrective action to be suggested. By working in linewith the goals of the customer, the financial system 170 can enhance thebanking/financial and personal goals of the user in an effort toincrease the bond and understanding between the customer and thefinancial institution.

While portions of the software elements illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1Bare shown as individual modules that implement the various features andfunctionality through various objects, methods, or other processes, thesoftware may instead include a number of sub-modules, third-partyservices, components, libraries, and such, as appropriate. Conversely,the features and functionality of various components can be combinedinto single components as appropriate.

FIG. 2 is a swim lane diagram of an example process 200 for a performinga failure analysis, identifying at least one corrective actionrecommendation, and generating an offer for financial lending to executeto the recommended corrective action. For clarity of presentation, thedescription that follows generally describes process 200 in the contextof the system 100 illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B. However, it will beunderstood that process 200 may be performed, for example, by any othersuitable system, environment, software, and hardware, or a combinationof systems, environments, software, and hardware as appropriate.Further, this illustration is meant to be a simple example of potentialimplementations of the described tools, and is not meant to be limitingto persons of ordinary skill in the art.

In process 200, a customer (or user) 205 and system 210 are illustrated.The customer 205 may be associated with one or more monitored devices(e.g., monitored devices 153 of FIG. 1A) and at least one connecteddevice (e.g., connected device 147 of FIG. 1A) monitoring the operationsof the one or more monitored devices. In some instances, one or moremonitored devices may themselves be connected devices that perform themonitoring of themselves and/or other monitored devices. The illustratedflow includes various portions of the illustrated environment of FIGS.1A and 1B as within the system 210 portion of the swim lane diagram. Forexample, the device failure management system 102 and the financialsystem 170 are considered within the system 210 lane.

At 220, inputs related to a monitored device are monitored by the system210 (e.g., at the device failure management system 102 of FIG. 1A) toidentify when a monitored device is nearing its end-of-life, oralternatively, is nearing a potential failure. The inputs for thisdetermination may include performance information and metrics receiveddirectly from the monitored device, device-specific monitoringinformation from a monitoring device (e.g., a connected device 147 ofFIG. 1A), environmental inputs from one or more monitoring devices nearor local to the monitored device, and device-specific informationassociated with similar devices used by others in other implementations.

At 225, when a device's likely life span goes below a certain thresholdpercentage (e.g., X %) of its remaining usefulness, or when the likelyremaining time of continued usage at a certain level reaches a certainremaining threshold time (e.g., 6 months), the system 210 can initializean analysis to determine a potential corrective action to take in lightof impending end-of-life or failure of the monitored device. In theillustrated example, for simplicity's sake, the two corrective actionsare considered to be repairing or replacing the device. In otherimplementations, additional corrective actions may be available orproposed. In some instances, the corrective action may be to continuewith the device until failure occurs.

At 230, a determination is made as to whether a repair or replacement isto be suggested. The determination can be made based on a combination ofseveral factors, including those described in FIGS. 1A and 1B. In theillustrated example of process 200, the determination is based on 1) thedevice and the device's condition or reason for its end-of-life orprojected failure, 2) an analysis of a cohort set similarly situated tothe customer 205, and 3) a set of the customer's financial and lifegoals. Additional criteria and parameters may be included in thedetermination in alternative implementations, as well as a subset ofthese.

Where the system 210 determines that the suggested corrective action isto repair the device, process 200 continues to 235. At 235, adetermination is made as to whether the customer 205 has a financialneed for assistance in performing the repairs and, if so, whether thecustomer 205 is creditworthy to receive and be approved for one or morefinancial offers. A financial need for assistance may be present if thecustomer does not have enough funds in cash or available credit to coverthe costs of the repair. In some instances, the creditworthinessanalysis may be performed only after the financial need is established,although in some instances, the analyses can be performed concurrentlyor simultaneously. If either of the analyses is a no, process 200continues to 265, where funds are either not required or the customer isnot creditworthy. In those cases, method 200 continues to 290 where theprocess ends. If, however, both the funds are required and credit isgood, method 200 continues through 240 and moves to 245.

At 245, based on the device information, monitored issue, and customerlocation, as well as any other suitable factors, a repair cost for laborand parts of the repair is determined. The determined costs may be basedon the costs experienced by one or more of the cohorts determinedrelative to the customer 205, or the costs may be estimated based onknown part prices and local labor fees. In some instances, the creatoror administrator of the system 210 may contract or receivepre-authorized prices associated with particular repairs. In someinstances, the costs may be an estimate used to prepare the offer for aloan and to ensure that the costs needed will be covered. At 250, theoffer for a loan product is generated based on the estimated repaircost. As noted, the type of loan product may differ based on thecustomer 205, the customer's credit and financial need, the type ofdevice being repaired, and other customer-specific and financialinstitution-specific parameters. At 255, the customer 205 is presentedwith the offer for the loan product to cover at least a part of therepair cost. As illustrated, process 200 continues to 290 where theprocess ends. While not illustrated, the customer 205 may be able toaccept the pre-approved loan after receiving the offer. In someinstances, the offer may include one or more referrals for the repairwork, including sponsored offers for repair technicians or parts neededto perform the repair. In some instances, accepting the loan mayinitiate a request for the repair to a licensed technician or repairperson.

Returning to 230, if the determination is made that the correctiveaction is to replace the device, process 200 continues to 260. At 260, adetermination (similar to that of 235) is made as to whether thecustomer 205 has a financial need for assistance in replacing the deviceand, if so, whether the customer 205 is creditworthy to receive and beapproved for one or more financial offers. If the customer 205 eitherdoes not have a financial need or is not creditworthy, process 200continues to 265. If, however, a need is identified for funds and thecustomer 205 is creditworthy, process 200 continues through 270 and, at275, a determination is made based on cohort information, customerinformation, and device information, a replacement quality and pricerange upon which the replacement action is to be based. For example, adetermination may be performed to determine if a replacement of the sametype and/or quality is to be performed. Additionally, a determination asto whether the same model as is being replaced is to be used, or whethera newer model should be used. This determination may be based on whetherthe device being replaced is obsolete, out of production, or has one ormore safety recalls associated with it, among others. Additionally, thetype of replacement may be based on information about one or both of thecustomer 205 (e.g., approved funding, prior purchasing decisions,comparison between available options, etc.) or the cohort group (e.g.,purchases for cohort members similarly situated as the customer 205,reported experiences with different products including varying qualityand price levels of replacements, etc.).

Based on the determined replacement device, an offer for a loan based onthe estimated replacement cost can be generated at 280. Similar to 250,the offer for a loan product is generated based on the estimatedreplacement cost, and the type of loan product may differ based on thecustomer 205, the customer's credit and financial need, the type ofreplacement device, and other customer-specific and financialinstitution-specific parameters. At 285, the customer 205 is presentedwith the offer for the loan product to cover at least a part of thereplacement cost. As illustrated, process 200 continues to 290 where theprocess ends. If interested, the customer 205 may be able to accept theoffered loan at this time. In some instances, accepting the loan mayautomatically trigger or initiate a purchase process for the replacementdevice.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of example operations for a method 300 performinga failure analysis and subsequent corrective action recommendations fromthe perspective of a failure analysis system. For clarity ofpresentation, the description that follows generally describes method300 in the context of the system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1A. However, itwill be understood that method 300 may be performed, for example, by anyother suitable system, environment, software, and hardware, or acombination of systems, environments, software, and hardware asappropriate.

At 305, data on monitored operations of at least one device arereceived. The monitored operations can be associated with a particularuser. As described above, the monitored operations may be received fromone or more devices, including the monitored device itself, one or morenearby connected devices capable of device-specific monitoring and/orenvironmental monitoring. Both the monitored device(s) and the connecteddevice(s) may be registered with a centralized or remote failureanalysis system. This failure analysis system can receive the monitoreddata. The monitored data can be interpreted, for example, in light ofdata related to the specific device (e.g., manufacturer information andother device-specific information) and information related to otherusers having prior experience with similar or identical devices. Basedon that interpretation, a remaining life span or projected failureanalysis of the at least one monitored device can be determined at 310based on the monitored operations and related information.

At 315, method 300 determines whether a projected remaining life span ofthe device as calculated is less than a threshold life span amount. Thethreshold amount may be a percentage of the device's overall life span(e.g., X % of remaining life), an absolute amount of time remaining(e.g., a number of months), or another suitable threshold amount. Insome instances, the threshold amount may vary based on one or moreexternal factors, including whether the monitored device has beenrecalled, whether potential replacement devices are on sale, clearance,or other reduced price, whether an analysis of a cohort group indicatesthat earlier replacements are preferred or commonly made, as well asothers. Further, life or financial events associated with the user maymodify the threshold amount. For example, end of year bonuses mayincrease available funds for the user, and may mean that an earlierreplacement is possible. If a user loses their job, the threshold amountmay decrease so that the corrective action is taken or suggested muchcloser to the end-of-life or failure event of the monitored device. If auser has made several recent large purchases, the threshold amount maybe lowered to delay the corrective action suggestion, while if the userhas managed a personalized budget well or unexpected funds arrived suchthat extra funds are available, the threshold may be increased to causethe corrective action to be suggested earlier. Various suitable eventscan affect the threshold amount needed to trigger the next actions.Alternatively, the threshold event may be triggered, and correctiveactions may be determined, where, based on the current user status andinformation related to the corrective action, device, or cohorts, thedetermined corrective action may be suggested as an immediateimplementation or as a future implementation. If the life span is notless than the threshold amount, method 300 returns to 305. If it is,method 300 continues at 320.

At 320, a corrective action to be performed is determined in response tothe determination that the life span is less than the threshold amount.As described above, the corrective action may include one or moresuitable actions to anticipate the potential end-of-life or potentialfailure of the device. In some instances, the two options may be torepair the device or to replace the device. In alternativeimplementations, additional options for corrective actions may beavailable. The corrective action decision may be based on multiplefactors, including the reasons for the end-of-life or failuredetermination (e.g., a particular issue or monitored reading associatedwith the device), the relative costs between repairing (e.g., labor andparts) and full replacement, information on improved energy efficiencyand long-term savings of replacement versus repairing, user financialstatus, life status and goals, and related information, and informationon the corrective actions taken by one or more users in a cohort groupmay have performed.

At 325, a financial analysis is performed based on the projected costsof the determined corrective action and financial information associatedwith the user. The financial analysis can include (1) a determination ofwhether the user is in financial need of assistance in performing thecorrective action and, if financial need is determined, (2) whether theuser meets creditworthiness standards for one or more potentialfinancial products. Initially, the determination of whether the user isin financial need of assistance may be based on one or more of theuser's financial accounts, including a determination of whether fundsare available to cover the projected costs of the corrective action. Thedetermination may also be based on preset or known user financial goals,including indications that the user would like to avoid and/or build newcredit. These decisions and user settings can assist in shaping thedetermination as to whether the financial need exists. If the needexists, then a credit and/or credit score analysis of the user may beperformed to determine whether the user qualifies for some or all of theavailable financial products used to pay or assist in paying for thecorrective action. Various credit requirements may be associated withdifferent financial products such that some users may qualify for all, aportion of, or none of the available financial products. In someinstances, the financial analysis may cause a revision to the determinedcorrective action, such as when a user may not be able to afford aninitial proposed action and instead may be better served to afford analternative proposed corrective action. In some instances, theoperations at 320 may include a full or abbreviated financial analysisin an attempt to avoid later revisions to the corrective action. Asdetermined at 330, if the user either does not have a financial need oris not creditworthy for any particular loan offerings, method 300returns to 305. If, however, a financial need exists and the user isdetermined to meet the creditworthiness standards associated with atleast one financial offering as determined at 330, method 300 continuesat 335.

At 335, a proposed offer for financing to perform and pay for thedetermined corrective action is generated. Multiple loan types andparameters may be available from a financial institution to offer. Theparticular loan offerings may be based on the user's financial history,amount of need, current financial status, available loan programs andproducts, and current incentives or promotions, among others. Differentloan offerings may include, but are not limited to, a credit card offer,a revolving credit line, a home equity loan or line of credit, anunsecured line of the credit, debt consolidation, micro-financing, P2Plending, or crowdfunding, among others. In some instances, the offer maycover an entire cost of the corrective action, while in others, theoffer may cover only a portion of the cost of the corrective action. Insome instances, only a notification of a particular corrective actionrecommended may be provided, such that the user is notified of the need.In others, a potential loan or financing offering may be provided, evenwhere there is no need for financing based on the user's financialsituation and/or financial goals.

At 340, the proposed offer for financing is presented to the user inassociation with the determined corrective action. The user may then beable to immediately, or after a period of time, accept the proposedoffer. In some instances, the offers may be associated with a link oroffer to purchase the replacement device or repair services, such asthrough sponsored or collaborative links or business relationships withthe service or goods providers. In this manner, the user may beguaranteed a better or best offer along with the loan offer.

The preceding figures and accompanying description illustrate examplesystems, processes, and computer-implementable techniques. While theillustrated systems and processes contemplate using, implementing, orexecuting any suitable technique for performing these and other tasks,it will be understood that these systems and processes are forillustration purposes only and that the described or similar techniquesmay be performed at any appropriate time, including concurrently,individually, or in combination, or performed by alternative componentsor systems. In addition, many of the operations in these processes maytake place simultaneously, concurrently, and/or in different orders thanas shown. Moreover, the illustrated systems may use processes withadditional operations, fewer operations, and/or different operations, solong as the methods remain appropriate.

In one alternative implementation, the threshold values associated witha failure or end-of-life analysis may be associated with multipleactions. For example, in the illustrated example of FIG. 2, at 225 thepotential corrective action determination is initiated when a device'slikely life span goes below a certain threshold percentage (e.g., X %)of its remaining usefulness, or when the likely remaining time ofcontinued usage at a certain level reaches a certain remaining thresholdtime. In an alternative implementation, different thresholds may be set(e.g., for some or all devices, for some or all users) such thatdifferent proposals related to a determined corrective action may besuggested or taken. For example, when a device is determined to haveonly 25% of its life remaining, the financial offer may not be for aloan as illustrated in FIG. 2, but rather for a savings plan to beimplemented by the user. When the device is determined to have only 10%of its life remaining, then the offer for a loan or lending product toperform the corrective action may be generated, where the offergenerated may be based, in part, on a determination of need thatreflects the savings previously initiated at the prior threshold. Whenthe device is determined to have less than 1% of its life remaining, the“offer” generated may be insurance-related, such as an increase toinsurance-related costs (e.g., higher premiums and/or deductible untilthe corrective action is taken) or an offer to reduce insurance-relatedcosts if the corrective action is taken (e.g., a decrease in premium ordeductible). By providing different thresholds of offers associated withthe corrective actions, the customer can avoid being surprised withreplacement costs, and can plan for such costs, well in advance of thelikely failure or end-of-life date.

In other words, although this disclosure has been described in terms ofcertain embodiments and generally associated methods, alterations andpermutations of these embodiments and methods will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. Accordingly, the above description of exampleembodiments does not define or constrain this disclosure. Other changes,substitutions, and alterations are also possible without departing fromthe spirit and scope of this disclosure.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A system comprising: a memory; at least onehardware processor interoperably coupled with the memory and configuredto: monitor operations of at least one monitored device using at leastone connected device, the at least one monitored device associated witha user, the at least one connected device separate and different fromthe at least one monitored device, the at least one connected devicehaving a sensor for monitoring operations associated with the at leastone monitored device; determine a projected life span of the at leastone monitored device based on the monitored operations; in response todetermining that the projected life span of the at least one monitoreddevice is less than a threshold amount, determine a corrective action tobe performed; and generate a proposal to be presented, via an interface,based on the determined corrective action, wherein generating theproposal includes creating the proposal based on the projected life spanof the at least one monitored device.
 22. The system of claim 21,wherein the at least one monitored device comprises a non-connecteddevice, the at least one monitored device not comprising an ability tomonitor its own operations.
 23. The system of claim 21, wherein the atleast one monitored device monitors at least some of its own operations,wherein the operations monitored by the at least one monitored deviceare included with the operations monitored by the at least one connecteddevice for determining the projected life span of the at least onemonitored device.
 24. The system of claim 21, wherein monitoringoperations of the at least one monitored device by the at least oneconnected device includes the at least one connected device monitoringat least one of the following: a time of active operations performed bythe at least one monitored device; a number of operations performed bythe at least one monitored device; and at least one performance metricassociated with the monitored operations of the at least one monitoreddevice.
 25. The system of claim 21, wherein monitoring operations of theat least one monitored device by the at least one connected devicecomprises monitoring at least one environmental parameter associatedwith the at least one monitored device.
 26. The system of claim 25,wherein the at least one environmental parameter associated with the atleast one device comprises at least one environment parameter occurringexternal to the at least one monitored device, wherein the at least oneenvironmental parameter is affected by operation of the at least onemonitored device.
 27. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least oneenvironmental parameter is monitored by the at least one connecteddevice in a location affected by the operation of the at least onemonitored device.
 28. The system of claim 26, wherein determining theprojected life span of the at least one monitored device based on themonitored operations comprises comparing metrics associated with the atleast one monitored environmental parameter to at least one expectedmetric associated with the environment parameter.
 29. The system ofclaim 28, wherein the at least one expected environmental parameter isbased on at least one environmental parameter observed in associationwith one or more devices similar to the at least one monitored device.30. The system of claim 21, wherein determining the projected life spanof the at least one monitored device includes performing a failureanalysis of the at least one monitored device.
 31. The system of claim30, wherein the failure analysis of the at least one monitored device isbased on, at least in part, at least one of the following: a usageamount of the at least one monitored device; and a usage amount of theat least one monitored device as compared to usage metrics associatedwith a plurality of similar devices.
 32. The system of claim 30, whereinthe failure analysis of the at least one monitored device is based on,at least in part, a set of monitored performance metrics associated withthe at least one monitored device, wherein the failure analysis of theat least one monitored device is based on at least one of a comparisonof the set of monitored performance metrics to a known set ofperformance metrics associated with a failure state or on informationcollected from a plurality of similar devices, and wherein the failureanalysis of the at least one monitored device is based on a comparisonof the set of monitored performance metrics to a set of expectedperformance metrics.
 33. The system of claim 21, wherein the determinedcorrective action is based on at least one of the following: an analysisof the user's financial data; an analysis of the user's prior usageanalytics of the at least one monitored device; an analysis ofcorrective actions taken by at least one other user associated withsimilar devices; information provided by a vendor of the at least onemonitored device; an analysis of environmental data associated with thelocation of the at least one monitored device; and a determination as toan issue associated with the at least one monitored device.
 34. Thesystem of claim 21, wherein the determined correction action includes anaction and a delay of implementing the action, wherein the delay ofimplementing the action is based on a projected remaining life span ofthe at least one monitored device, a current financial situationassociated with the user, and pricing trends associated with areplacement device.
 35. The system of claim 21, wherein the determinedcorrective action is one of repairing or replacing the at least onemonitored device.
 36. The system of claim 21, wherein generating theproposal includes estimating a cost of the determined corrective actionand analyzing an account associated with the user, and wherein creatingthe proposal associated with the determined corrective action is basedon the projected life span of the at least one monitored device, theestimated cost of the determined corrective action, and the analysis ofthe account associated with the user.
 37. The system of claim 36,wherein analyzing the account associated with the user includesanalyzing at least one of a financial or transactional accountassociated with the user, wherein analyzing the at least one of thefinancial or transactional account associated with the user includesdetermining whether funds are sufficient to cover the estimated cost ofthe determined corrective action are available in accounts associatedwith the user; the at least one hardware processor further configuredto, in response to determining that funds sufficient to cover theestimated cost of the determined corrective action are not available inaccounts associated with the user, perform an automated creditworthiness determination based on a credit history of the user, whereinthe proposal is generated in response to the credit worthinessdetermination determining that the user is worthy of credit, and whereinthe proposal comprises an offer of at least one loan product to pay forthe estimated costs associated with the determined corrective action.38. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing computer-readableinstructions executable by a computer and configured to: monitoroperations of at least one monitored device using at least one connecteddevice, the at least one monitored device associated with a user, the atleast one connected device separate and different from the at least onemonitored device, the at least one connected device having a sensor formonitoring operations associated with the at least one monitored device;determine a projected life span of the at least one monitored devicebased on the monitored operations; in response to determining that theprojected life span of the at least one monitored device is less than athreshold amount, determine a corrective action to be performed; andgenerate a proposal to be presented, via an interface, based on thedetermined corrective action, wherein generating the proposal includescreating the proposal based on the projected life span of the at leastone monitored device.
 39. The medium of claim 38, wherein the at leastone monitored device comprises a non-connected device, the at least onemonitored device not comprising an ability to monitor its ownoperations.
 40. The medium of claim 38, wherein the at least onemonitored device monitors at least some of its own operations, whereinthe operations monitored by the at least one monitored device areincluded with the operations monitored by the at least one connecteddevice for determining the projected life span of the at least onemonitored device.
 41. The medium of claim 38, wherein monitoringoperations of the at least one monitored device by the at least oneconnected device includes the at least one connected device monitoringat least one of the following: a time of active operations performed bythe at least one monitored device; a number of operations performed bythe at least one monitored device; and at least one performance metricassociated with the monitored operations of the at least one monitoreddevice.
 42. The medium of claim 38, wherein monitoring operations of theat least one monitored device by the at least one connected devicecomprises monitoring at least one environmental parameter associatedwith the at least one monitored device, wherein the at least oneenvironmental parameter associated with the at least one devicecomprises at least one environment parameter occurring external to theat least one monitored device, wherein the at least one environmentalparameter is affected by operation of the at least one monitored device.43. The medium of claim 42, wherein determining the projected life spanof the at least one monitored device based on the monitored operationscomprises comparing metrics associated with the at least one monitoredenvironmental parameter to at least one expected metric associated withthe environment parameter.
 44. The medium of claim 38, whereindetermining the projected life span of the at least one monitored deviceincludes performing a failure analysis of the at least one monitoreddevice, wherein the failure analysis of the at least one monitoreddevice is based on, at least in part, a set of monitored performancemetrics associated with the at least one monitored device, wherein thefailure analysis of the at least one monitored device is based on atleast one of a comparison of the set of monitored performance metrics toa known set of performance metrics associated with a failure state or oninformation collected from a plurality of similar devices, and whereinthe failure analysis of the at least one monitored device is based on acomparison of the set of monitored performance metrics to a set ofexpected performance metrics.
 45. A computerized method performed by oneor more processors, the method comprising: monitoring operations of atleast one monitored device using at least one connected device, the atleast one monitored device associated with a user, the at least oneconnected device separate and different from the at least one monitoreddevice, the at least one connected device having a sensor for monitoringoperations associated with the at least one monitored device;determining a projected life span of the at least one monitored devicebased on the monitored operations; in response to determining that theprojected life span of the at least one monitored device is less than athreshold amount, determining a corrective action to be performed,wherein the determined corrective action is one of repairing orreplacing the at least one monitored device; and generating a proposalto be presented, via an interface, based on the determined correctiveaction, wherein generating the proposal includes: estimating a cost ofthe determined corrective action; analyzing an account associated withthe user; and creating the proposal associated with the determinedcorrective action based on the projected life span of the at least onemonitored device, the estimated cost of the determined correctiveaction, and the analysis of the account associated with the user. 46.The method of claim 45, wherein the at least one monitored devicecomprises a non-connected device, the at least one monitored device notcomprising an ability to monitor its own operations.
 47. The method ofclaim 45, wherein the at least one monitored device monitors at leastsome of its own operations, wherein the operations monitored by the atleast one monitored device are included with the operations monitored bythe at least one connected device for determining the projected lifespan of the at least one monitored device.
 48. The method of claim 45,wherein monitoring operations of the at least one monitored device bythe at least one connected device includes the at least one connecteddevice monitoring at least one of the following: a time of activeoperations performed by the at least one monitored device; a number ofoperations performed by the at least one monitored device; and at leastone performance metric associated with the monitored operations of theat least one monitored device.
 49. The method of claim 45, whereinmonitoring operations of the at least one monitored device by the atleast one connected device comprises monitoring at least oneenvironmental parameter associated with the at least one monitoreddevice, wherein the at least one environmental parameter associated withthe at least one device comprises at least one environment parameteroccurring external to the at least one monitored device, wherein the atleast one environmental parameter is affected by operation of the atleast one monitored device, and wherein the at least one environmentalparameter is monitored by the at least one connected device in alocation affected by the operation of the at least one monitored device,and wherein determining the projected life span of the at least onemonitored device based on the monitored operations comprises comparingmetrics associated with the at least one monitored environmentalparameter to at least one expected metric associated with theenvironment parameter.
 50. The method of claim 45, wherein determiningthe projected life span of the at least one monitored device includesperforming a failure analysis of the at least one monitored device,wherein the failure analysis of the at least one monitored device isbased on, at least in part, a set of monitored performance metricsassociated with the at least one monitored device, wherein the failureanalysis of the at least one monitored device is based on at least oneof a comparison of the set of monitored performance metrics to a knownset of performance metrics associated with a failure state or oninformation collected from a plurality of similar devices, and whereinthe failure analysis of the at least one monitored device is based on acomparison of the set of monitored performance metrics to a set ofexpected performance metrics.
 51. The method of claim 45, whereinanalyzing the account associated with the user includes analyzing atleast one of a financial or transactional account associated with theuser, wherein analyzing the at least one of the financial ortransactional account associated with the user includes determiningwhether funds are sufficient to cover the estimated cost of thedetermined corrective action are available in accounts associated withthe user; the at least one hardware processor further configured to, inresponse to determining that funds sufficient to cover the estimatedcost of the determined corrective action are not available in accountsassociated with the user, perform an automated credit worthinessdetermination based on a credit history of the user, wherein theproposal is generated in response to the credit worthiness determinationdetermining that the user is worthy of credit, and wherein the proposalcomprises an offer of at least one loan product to pay for the estimatedcosts associated with the determined corrective action.